On May 26 – 27, 2017 an international conference “Changing realities in the world of work: transformation of social risks and needs“ was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, organised by Lithuanian Labour Federation (LDF) with the support of EZA and the European Union.
The conference was attended by more than 50 leaders of Trade unions and workers' organizations from Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Ireland, Romania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Serbia and Lithuania.
J. Švedienė, vice-president of EZA, Secretary General of LDF welcomed the seminar participants on behalf of the EZA. She introduced the EZA organization, provided latest developments and updated information on its activities and, finally, she presented aims and objectives of the seminar. The aim of the conference is to discuss the changing labour market situation taking into account social risks and needs.
Objectives:
- To increase awareness of trade unionists about European Pillar for Social Rights;
- To identify key forces shaping the world of work;
- To examine the new trends of Employment and new fields of occupation;
- To debate the Ageing appropriate work;
- To analyse demographical situation and its influence on labour market and social security system;
- To share the best practices from different European countries;
- To collect and to spread the results of the seminar to the main institutions.
The first part of the seminar was devoted to speaking about new technologies and major labour market changes. The impact of digital technology is not pre-determined. It will continue to change our society and economy, but these changes will result in essentially the way European citizens, businesses and public authorities decide to use them.
The first presentation was made by Maarten Hermans, researcher from HIVA, on the topic „Representative Employee Participation and Workplace-Level Innovation Processes: A Cross-National Qualitative Analysis of Labour Union Practices“. His presentation was concentrated on these main questions: How Trade unions contribute to innovation processes: Why are unions trying to do this? Can unions do this? What helps/hinders unions in doing this? What are the opportunities & pitfalls for unions? The speaker underlined that Workplace innovation refers to practices that enable employees to participate in organisational change in such a way as to improve the quality of their working life and organisational performance. Labour unions in manufacturing sectors are cautiously engaging with strategies of “workplace innovation” and “employee driven innovation”. This involves dealing with topics that are traditionally considered management prerogative, incorporating forms of employee involvement that are less familiar or even in conflict with union structures, and adopting or re-working concepts and discourses such as “high performance work practices”, “employee involvement”, and “lean production”. The main outcomes from the presentation are:
- Union search for role in (workplace) innovation processes, part of trend towards ‘competitive corporatism’;
- Unions can have positive impact on organisation-level innovation processes;
- Success depends on institutional features;
- (WP) innovation strategy both potential & pitfalls for unions.
The second speaker Marius Vaščega, Officer of Economic Governance in European Commission Representation in Lithuania made the presentation on the topic "The changing world of work and social challenges: the European Union reaction?" Europe faces huge challenges in reducing inequality and social exclusion. 80 million people are at risk of poverty and 14 million young people are not in education, employment or training.
The nature of work and the ways it is performed have changed multiple times and throughout human history. However, the pace of change has accelerated significantly, largely due to digital technologies. Many of today’s jobs and most sought-after skills did not exist a decade ago, while routine occupations are vulnerable to automation.
Job polarisation and job displacement have intensified in advanced economies. At the same time, technological innovations offer new and flexible opportunities which often include those traditionally at the fringes of the labour markets. Policymakers need to manoeuvre between these two trends: preserving the core of a social market economy while being open to innovation and technology-driven change that impacts organisations and individuals alike.
Well-crafted public policies need to keep track of changes in the world of work, using data and digital technologies to better understand evolving trends, and offer more targeted support to individuals. Active labour market policies will seek to buttress potential fallouts and adapt to new realities. For instance, they will ease the transition from employment to freelancing and back, seeking ways to provide more security to gig economy workers, or making greater efforts to provide customised skills and trainings that maximise employment potential.
Speaker underlined the future perspectives for social dimension. He introduced the European Pillar for Social Rights.
Irene Mandl, researcher from EUROFOUND presented the Research „New forms of employment“ and outcomes of last year‘s Foundation Seminar Series „The impact of digitalisation on work: Building up national agendas for better implementation of digital changes“. Societal and economic developments, such as the need for increased flexibility by both employers and workers, have resulted in the emergence of new forms of employment across Europe. These have transformed the traditional one-to-one relationship between employer and employee. The speaker explained what are the new forms of employment, its relation to digitalisation, ITC based mobile work and explained the importance of digital technologies in the workplace. The main conclusions were done:
- The heterogeneity of the new employment forms identified suggests that general discussions or policy recommendations for ‘new forms of employment’ are of little use. More specific and tailor-made approaches are needed, and these should be based on a joint understanding of what the individual employment forms are and national and cross-national exchange of information and experience;
- To increase the use of new employment forms that have been found to have positive effects on working conditions and the labour market – employee sharing, interim management and job sharing – steps need to be taken to raise awareness of them among both employers and workers;
- The current research shows that balance is needed between the protection of workers and the need to make these new forms easy for employers to use. This could be achieved either by legislation or collective agreement.
The second part of the seminar was devoted to speaking on atypical forms of employment and its role in the labour market.
“Atypical employment forms in Lithuania. Their Impact on labour market and employees” was presented by Prof. dr. (HP).Boguslavas Gruževskis, Director of Lithuanian Social Research Centre. The speaker underlined that Information technology is changing the concept of employment:
- workplaces lose a specific, localized area, the local form of (tele-work);
- working hours are more likely to be combined with individual needs and may include 24 hours; irrespective of formal regulation;
- collective work is possible for workers at different geographical points.
The speaker analysed the types of atypical forms of employment and their spread in Lithuania in the context of the European Union. A special emphasis in the speech was laid on security of atypical workers in the labour market. The analysis revealed that despite certain advantages of atypical employment atypical employees are less secure in the labour market than employees in standard employment. This insecurity is determined by more frequent stresses due to work-related situations, poor visibility regarding the future level of income and career perspectives. The analysis of statistical data revealed that self-employment and part-time work are the most prevalent atypical forms of employment in Lithuania. A special mention should also be given to two atypical forms of employment - self-employment and temporary agency work - which have grown most over the past few years in Lithuania. According to the speaker, Atypical forms of employment effectively serve the economic and social development, if ensure adequate income, and does not limit career opportunities. If there is no representative of the interests of workers in the company, atypical forms of employment can become a shadow economy or workers' exploitation tool. All forms of employment must ensure dignified working and remuneration conditions!
“Analysis of Hardly integrated people in the labour market. Measures to increase their employment” was presented by Inga Liubertė, Head of Labour Market and Employment Department at Lithuanian Labour Exchange Office.
The speaker has introduced the portrait of hardly integrated people and main statistics regarding the employment and unemployment of such people. As the speaker underlined, reasons determining the limited employment opportunities for hardly integrated people are: Employers often have a negative attitude towards such persons; there are no big numbers of work, which provide flexible hours or part-time job(important for the disabled, mothers with young children); Intense competition between persons seeking for unskilled jobs; No social skills, low self-esteem; Low motivation, social benefit system does not encourage them to work; Limited transport options. Inga Liubertė also introduced the most important projects that are implemented and helps hardly integrated people to enter and stay in the labour market.
The third part of the seminar “Increased demographic pressures on economic growth” was devoted to analysis of the demographic situation in Lithuania, emigration consequences to labour market and economy of the country. Older people’s employment was analysed during this session.
Rūta Brazienė, researcher of Lithuanian Social Research Centre, presented topic ”Older people employment tendencies in Lithuania. The results of the scientific research“. The speaker in her presentation focused on Demographic trends in Lithuania and Europe, Employment trends in Lithuania and EU and Older workers Problems and opportunities in the labour market.
Labour market conditions of older workers remain somewhat favourable by international standards. The unemployment rate of older worker (aged 55-64) stood at 8.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2015 (only 1.4 percentage points higher than the EU-28 average). Similarly, although the incidence of longterm unemployment among older workers – at 52.7 per cent – is rather elevated, it remains almost 10 percentage points below the EU-28 average. More importantly, the participation rate of older workers is considerably higher than the EU-28 average, reaching values of 64.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.
The research, regarding older people’s integration into the labour market was made by the Institute. The results of this research show that older workers are often subject to prejudice and discrimination in the workplace, particularly with respect to training and recruitment. Here, older workers may often be side-lined, with preference instead given to younger workers who are assumed to stay longer in the job. Older people can hardly find a job, usually are discriminated because of their age, there are many stereotypes about older workers. There are some recommendations regarding the situation:
- to reduce age stereotypes;
- to assess older persons not by age, but by competence;
- to increase opportunities to retrain;
- to develop flexible forms of employment;
- to initiate partial employment of older workers;
- to encourage small business development for older persons;
- to create attractive mechanisms for the creation of new working places for older persons.
In order to mitigate the effects of ageing, policies are needed to raise the participation rates of older workers and to ensure older workers are given the opportunity and skills to regain employment and/or remain attached to the labour market.
Ako Astma, the representative of workers movement in Estonia ETOK and Daniel Markovic, representing workers organisation in Slovakia NKOS, presented the situation in their countries. They provided main statistics regarding the employment in respective countries. They outlined that there are big numbers of hardly integrated people in the labour market: Youth without basic education, refugees, minorities and older people. Speakers provided the information about the government policy, work of NGO in this field.
Topic „Demographic challenges on labour market, economies and social security systems“ was presented by Dr. Arūnas Pocius, researcher of Lithuanian Social Research Centre. The speaker presented many statistics regarding the demographical tendencies of the country. Emigration from Lithuania continues to be identified as one of the most urgent national problems, posing demographic as well as labour market problems, yet until recently very little has been done to stop such massive emigration, to encourage return migrants. In his speech it was stressed that Lithuania has one of the fastest ageing populations in Europe and the working-age population is expected to decline dramatically, giving rise to a number of economic, labour market and social consequences. The country has experienced significant emigration flows over the past decades. Between 1990 and 2014, the net migration rate in Lithuania has on average been more than three times higher than the EU-28 average. Overall, more than half million people have emigrated from Lithuania over this period, with young people (aged 20-29) accounting for around one-third of the total.
Socio-economic development and emigration are interrelated and in a relationship of reciprocal causality. On the one hand – socio-economic developments and economic problems are among the main causes of emigration. On the other, emigration, especially mass emigration, as in the Lithuanian case, directly and indirectly influences current and future social and economic development, and in many cases encourages further emigration. Emigration becomes an essential economic strategy, a main source of income for certain portions of the population.
The economic impact of emigration is not easy to evaluate on the basis of standard statistical data. A simple comparison of economic development and emigration indicators sometimes reveals paradoxical situations, raising more questions than it answers.
„Strong family – the most important value“ was presented by Vytautas Salinis, the Director of Institute of Social Economy. The speaker raised a question - is family still a value? It seems that the family today has become a strangely alienated subject. On the one hand, everyone knows what it is. After all, everyone (at least yet) has a mother, father, common - as well as sisters and brothers, children. On the other hand, if we ask, why do we need a family, what role it plays in human community life, as it transforms how people connect - really rare is able to answer. Usually nobody stops thinking about it. Young people are really pulled away from their parents, grandparents entertained wisdom and their traditions.
On the other hand, love relationships, marriage, children are still recognized by the majority as values. Their importance is confirmed by research which shows that married people living in a harmonious family are happier. Therefore, the modern family also remains the school of social and spiritual life, an example and an incentive to strengthen psychological relations, promote an intergenerational dialogue in the spirit of respect, justice and love.
Round-table discussion: State support for family and children – practice in different countries? Different countries experience: Participants from Cyprus, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Serbia made speeches. Representatives of each country briefly presented the key statistics on social and economic situation of their country. Most attention was devoted to the specifics of family policy. What is the government policy regarding support for families, what tools and techniques are most effective.
Conclusions
In Europe, new employment forms can refer to a changed relationship between employer and employee; to new forms of work organisation (as regards the time and place of work or the use of modern information and communication technologies); or to a combination of both. These new forms are caused by economic circumstances, but also by technological and societal change. While most new employment forms are still marginal, it can be assumed that some of them have the potential to effect a complete structural change of the labour market.
At the same time, the digital revolution has generated a surge in demand for new jobs and occupational categories that did not even exist a decade ago. These include people with a high technology quotient such as big data specialists, social media managers, cognitive computing engineers, Internet of Things architects and blockchain developers.
Given the changes in the workplace, people will have to increasingly learn new skills to remain employable throughout their working life. They will be increasingly likely to change employers, jobs, employment status and professions numerous times and at faster paces than ever before. And, given that people live longer, they will most likely also have to work longer, either out of choice or necessity. While some have the tools and mindset to embrace this flexibly, not all are equipped with the skills, competences and support system to be able to respond to these changes.
For these reasons, training and reskilling will matter more throughout people’s working lives. Education obtained before one’s professional life will have to be regularly ‘topped-up’. Transitions will be more frequent and complex - particularly with regards to family and care responsibilities on the one hand, and employment and training on the other. These will have to be better supported than they are today.
RESOLUTION
More than 50 Employee organizations representatives from Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Belgium, Ireland and Lithuania attended a conference where they
- made an overview of the impact of digitalization on the labour market and employees;
- had a discussion on the European Commission documents and initiatives of the European Social Partners;
- listened to the presentations made by the representative of the European Commission Representation in Lithuania, Labour Exchange, Lithuanian Social Research Institute, HIVA from Belgium, Institute of Social Economy, Eurofound as well as other presentations provided by the participants of the conference;
- took an active part in the discussions.
Social partners claim that the competencies demanded by the Labour Market are entirely different these days. Young generation finds it easier to acquire the skills that are in demand but in case of medium and senior generation the skills are insufficient. Currently the significance of a constructive Social dialogue, negotiations and agreements, responsibility, moral, solidarity and social justice are the values of highest priority.
Social partners decided to:
- Support the European Commission initiative on „Building the European Social Pillar“.
To offer proposals to National Governments:
- To acknowledge that the taxation systems in the majority of European countries do not meet contemporary socio-economic situation and do not provide opportunities for the citizens to satisfy their needs;
- To encourage national governments to review their taxation systems and improve budgetary mechanisms;
- To increase allocations from GDP to secure social protection;
- To improve opportunities for their employees to balance private life and work and to develop the network of public institutions that provide child care services;
- To focus on the reduction of child poverty and reinforce the economic situation of the family. To increase State benefits for children, to allocate more funds for educational institutions to provide free of charge food for students in need;
- To improve labour remuneration systems;
- To bridge the gap between minimum pay for work and the average salary in the country;
- To bring minimum cost of living standard closer to the reality and relate them to most urgent needs of the citizens;
- To allocate more funds from the ESF to build social partners skills to improve social dialogue;
- To secure higher involvement of social partners into decision making and take their proposals into consideration.